Congrats to Paula. I’m sure she has a lot of work ahead of her cleaning up the Tornberg mess.

But in a surprising election, Paula had to go up against Tornberg in the 2nd and final round. No one reached 51% in the first round of voting, so the top two were picked. Paula got 72% of the vote vs. Tornberg’s 28%.

9 Thoughts on “Paula Hawks voted in as new chair of the SDDP

  1. D@ily Spin on March 23, 2019 at 8:32 pm said:

    I really really want the Democratic Party to come into some kind of force. It will be some time to defeat republican prominence but it could happen. Not to sound sexist but an aggressive less narcissist woman might get influence around the good old boys network.

  2. kurtz on March 24, 2019 at 7:50 am said:

    Democrats lost in South Dakota because the party abandoned legal cannabis as a campaign strategy and nominated an anti-reproductive rights candidate for governor failing to attract American Indian and younger voters.

    The only reason Billie Sutton got any SDGOP crossover votes whatsoever is because Kristi Noem is hated by almost half her caucus. Vote margins in the other statewide races proved that. Stephanie Sandlin or Bernie Hunhoff would have done at least as well. After bombarding the Facebook pages of every single South Dakota media outlet that has one, blocking over 1000 bots and helping to draw out some 91,000 new Democratic voters in my home state I have unfollowed all media outlets in South Dakota on FB and Twitter.

    Democrats in blue states already understand the added value of talking legal cannabis during their campaigns and some red state Democrats get it, too; but during the 2018 election cycle the US House candidate believed the state party is just too fragile for cannabis rights.

    No South Dakota Democrat will get a dime from me until the county chairs are filled and unless Democrats weave cannabis into their platform at their state convention and arch-conservatives run for offices outside the Greedy Old Party it’s curtains for SDDP in 2020, too.

    The South Dakota Democratic Party should advocate for paying the tribes and settling the Black Hills Claim, dissolving the Black Hills National Forest, moving management of the land from the US Department of Agriculture into the Department of Interior in cooperation with Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Forestry and Wildfire Management. Mato Paha (Bear Butte), the associated national grasslands and the Sioux Ranger District of the Custer/Gallatin National Forest should be included in the move.

    Rewild it and rename it Okawita Paha National Monument eventually becoming part of the Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge connecting the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge in Montana along the Missouri River to Oacoma, South Dakota combined with corridors from Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon in the north and south to the Canadian River through Nebraska, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.

    Hey, South Dakota Democrats: run on passing a corporate income tax, reducing the number of SD counties to 25, turning Dakota State or Northern State University into community colleges, ending video lootery and adopting my cannabis template.

  3. While several other candidates had plans to transform the Party, Paula relied on her connections with SDEA and her notoriety as a former congressional candidate to carry the day. She never missed the opportunity to recite that she is “proud to be a Democrat” when in fact she has a history of betraying fellow Democratic candidates. I encourage her to explain her past disloyalty and apologizes for it. If not, while she is riding high at the moment, she will prove to be a false prophet in the end, supported only by a sliver of Democrats with a limited agenda, whose primary beef with Republicans is that they, themselves, are not in charge.

  4. Larry and Sheldon are right. Paula’s nomination WON’T bring me back to the party. I told myself if Claussen would have became chair, I would re-register Democrat. I will remain indy.

    I will also implore the Dems eliminate taxes on food, clothing and utilities and replace them by ending the millions we have in exemptions, for example taxing advertising. I also think it is time to tap the state’s investment funds for education instead of corporate welfare. An idea Hunhoff has had for years.

  5. John Kennedy Claussen, Sr., on March 24, 2019 at 12:14 pm said:

    I wish Paula, Randy, Lorri, and Bill the best as they begin to lead the South Dakota Democratic Party. They deserve everyones’ respect. They also deserve the appropriate time to put into effect a plan that will allow Democrats to win in 2020 and beyond.

    I want to thank Ann for her service, too. She is a good person with a lot of energy, and I am confident she will stay active in the party.

    I also want to thank Tom, Allison, and John (Cunningham) for running as well. I truly believe the answer to the SDDP being a viable political party in this state is found when you look at the ideas of all six us as candidates and not the merely from the ideas of any one of us.

    I also hope with this election completed, the party will heal through finding its roots once again. Knowing that the Democratic Party is to be a party for both women and men, for people of all sexual orientations and faiths, or no faith, for the workers, for the elderly, and for the children; and not a safehaven for Republican-lite ideas or candidacies, which often only hold up one of the mantels of our party and not them all, and in so doing, allow for the decay and crumbling of what we are suppose to truly be about as a political party, which is a party that fights for the people and not just for one class, or sex, or orientation, or age, or faith.

  6. Registered Independent on March 24, 2019 at 1:22 pm said:

    Does that guy ever think of anything other than his weed? Every time he posts his copy and paste manifestos it screams addiction and makes the case the SDDP should steer clear of weed and focus on the basics.

  7. kurtz on March 24, 2019 at 6:00 pm said:

    Despite lies from SDGOP video lootery, payday loan sharks, domestic violence and homelessness are inextricably linked putting children at risk to more catastrophic consequences far more often than has happened in states that have legalized or lessened penalties for casual use of cannabis.

  8. scott on March 24, 2019 at 9:05 pm said:

    all we need is weed.

  9. "Very Stable Genius" on March 24, 2019 at 10:26 pm said:

    If they had passed out weed at the Democratic gathering this past weekend in Oacoma, then maybe more would have found interest in munching on the many ignored free boxed lunches.

Post Navigation